What Do Happiness, Sleep Deprivation, And Prison Have In Commom?

They’re all part of this week’s Saturday Sanity!

It’s not unusual to skim through the other b5media Science & Health Channel blogs and find mental health-related discussions going on. Here are a few from this week:

• Elaine at Genetics & Health posted Happiness is down to your genes, a look at a University of Edinburgh and Queensland Institute for Medical Research study dealing with happiness being “partly determined by personality traits and that both personality and happiness are largely hereditary.”
• Marijke at Help My Hurt posted Don’t bother with aromatherapy – it won’t help your pain, which highlights a recent study suggesting aromatherapy not only doesn’t help relieve pain, but that “even distilled water showed a more positive effect than lavender” in regards to pain and stress. (Read my own comment about lavender-related fiascoes!)
• Liberty at Healthbolt posted Restful Sleep Sappers Exposed!, a look at “junk sleep” (interesting name) and a list of potential sleep-depriving culprits.

And, some Saturday Sanity from around the world:

• Jace from everyminute.org was awesome enough to let me and all Mental Health Notes readers know about this wonderful new grassroots organization that aims to fight stigma and secure research funding. I highly recommend checking it out, as well as signing the online declaration (which is cool not only because you’re making your voice heard, but also because you actually get to use your mouse to sign your name!).
• Army: Psychiatrists needed on warfronts. Includes a jaw-dropping plethora of statistics and research findings. Nothing surprising, per se, but jaw-dropping nonetheless.
• The House may have passed the Paul Wellstone Mental Health And Addiction Equality Act, but there’s still work to be done.
• Fewer Montanans locked up. Department of Corrections director Mike Ferriter “credits the state’s falling number of incarcerated citizens to a host of new programs that aim to hold felons accountable, but also help them deal with drug addiction, alcoholism, mental illness and other personal issues that often lie at the root of criminal behavior.” Sure wish my home state would follow suit.
• Scientists pinpoint why some people become addicts. My favorite quote from the article? “This research helps us move away from thinking of drug dependence as a moral weakness and allows us to see it as more of a medical condition.” YAY for that!
• Anger in teenage boys tied to enlarged brain region. There are about 157 jokes I could make about that article title, but the article itself is interesting. Sample? “[Scientists in Australia and the United States] report that these boys may also be unable to control their emotions because other parts of the brain that normally control strong emotions don’t mature till the early 20s.”
• When It Comes To Emotions, Eastern And Western Cultures See Things Very Differently. This research suggests that, when trying to determine a particular person’s emotions, people of Eastern cultures tend to assess the emotions of others who happen to be near that person, too, while people of Western cultur tend to focus solely on that particular person’s emotions without using the surrounding people’s emotions as guidance.

Remember, if you have any news you think is Saturday Sanity-worthy, you can feel free to send it my way!

Stay tuned later today when Mental Health Notes wraps up the Grab Drug Advertisements by the Pills series in honor of Patient Safety Awareness Week!

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